A survey of 1000 UK SMEs, commissioned by cloud accountancy software Pandle, has uncovered that six out of ten UK SMEs are confident in the government’s ability to negotiate trade deals, and over one in three think that brexit will positively impact their business.

In light of the recent triggering of Article 50, almost half (47%) of UK SMEs feel that they’re being rushed to prepare for Brexit, however 56% stated that the government is doing enough to support them. Similar findings have been published in The SME Growth Tracker report, which highlighted SMEs’ growing confidence – with businesses now forecasting a 2.3% rise in revenue growth.

While the majority of SMEs are confident in the UK government’s ability to negotiate trade deals, over four in ten (41%) are concerned that importing will become more difficult post-Brexit and that the deadlines set won’t be met. This issue will become a focal point in the negotiations as SMEs make up 99% of the businesses in every main sector in the UK and one in three (32%) small businesses are involved in overseas trade as importers and/or exporters, with the vast majority of these businesses trading with the EU single market.

“It’s important that the Brexit negotiators keep SMEs top of mind during the talks,” said Lee Murphy, owner of Pandle. “SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK and Brexit could easily make or break some of these businesses, especially when considering the tariffs that the EU may place on imports and exports.”